


Heartrate

by FirepoweredTulip



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 08:25:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1737929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirepoweredTulip/pseuds/FirepoweredTulip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took years, and Germany never realized how weak his elder brother was becoming. He regrets it now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartrate

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the bad title. It was the best one I could think of that fit in(considering a heart rate monitor is a reoccurring thing in the fic).
> 
> Anyway, this was a short fic I wrote in April for a challenge for the Germanbrothers Tumblr blog. The idea was that we took a random prompt from the "imagine your otp" blog and wrote a short fic based on it in an hour. The prompts were supposed to be Germancest-related, but the fact that I really don't ship it seemed to show and it ended up just brotherly. XD;
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

The constant sound of beeping was driving Ludwig crazy. It was all he had been hearing for the past three days. Beep…beep…beep…

As annoying as it was, it assured him that his brother was still breathing. It really had been a shock…Gilbert had only had a slight cough that morning, and a headache. Ludwig, as the ambassador for the country of Germany, had to go out and work. Something that Gilbert, as the once-ambassador to the now-defunct country of Prussia, could understand. Gilbert had ushered him out the door, telling him that he’d be fine. That if anything came up, he’d send a text Ludwig’s way.

At least, that was what had supposed to happen. Instead, Ludwig came home after a long day of dealing with the other nations to find his older brother lying on the couch. The abinic once-nation’s usually pale face had become flushed with fever, and his clothes had been thoroughly drenched in sweat. Any attempt Ludwig made to wake his brother up proved useless. He had no choice but to call an ambulance…and things blurred after that.

Three days. Three long days of hospitals and doctors and quiet prayers for Gilbert to open his eyes once again. Ludwig had never really been that good at the whole religion thing, although he had witnessed Gilbert pray before bed, and on occasion joined Feliciano in saying grace when he went to visit his Italian friend. However, he had never hoped that there was a God to listen to his pleas like now. And as Gilbert grew thinner and weaker, so did that little bit of faith that remained.

His fellow nations came to visit on occasion. Feliciano and his grumpy elder brother, Lovino, visited at least once a day – so often that Ludwig had begun to suspect that perhaps Feliciano had decided to stay in a nearby hotel instead of making the trip between Italy and Germany constantly. Feliciano always made sure that Ludwig ate, and fetched him coffee when Ludwig looked tired. Ludwig still felt exhausted, though. One look at Gilbert’s face (since when had Gilbert’s cheeks become so sunken in?), and all of Ludwig’s own strength left.

Elizabeta and Roderich, both Gilbert’s childhood friends and the personifications of Hungary and Austria, respectively, came to visit once. Roderich hadn’t said much, and Elizabeta just sobbed and hugged Ludwig. This left Ludwig feeling confused and upset. Everyone could see Gilbert wasn’t doing well. Even the doctors had a poor outlook on Gilbert’s recovery.

Despite all that, Ludwig remained as strong as he could. Only once, late in the afternoon of the third day, Ludwig broke down. He should have caught this sooner. Ever since the Berlin Wall had fallen, Gilbert was getting sick more and more often, and each time it seemed to hit him harder and take him longer to recover. If he hadn’t just shrugged it off…perhaps if he could get Gilbert treated for whatever this was just a little bit sooner…

The reasoning fell flat, even for him. He knew that wouldn’t help. He knew there was nothing he could do. With that, the guilt worsened. He knew Gilbert willingly gave up his nationhood to protect Ludwig. From the allies and the humans’ standpoint, it was a bit different. Something about Prussian morals effecting German ones. It was all the same, though. And instead of dying right away, like everyone had thought happened to nations when their countries ceased to exist, Gilbert had been slowly dying over the course of several years.

“Bitte…” Ludwig whispered, standing up and gently placing his forehead against his elder brother’s burning hot one. He could still head Gilbert’s breathing, but it was so slow and faint that he could barely detected. “Please, brother. Stay with me. I can’t do this without you…” It wasn’t like him to be spilling his feelings like this, but here he was doing it anyway. “Please, I love you, bruder.”

Beep….beep….beeeeeeeeep….

In the movies, this would be the moment where Gilbert would take a breath, open his eyes, and give Ludwig a weak smile. He’d say something about Ludwig being sappy, and fall into a healing sleep, instead of the sleep of death he had been trapped in for the past few days. However, this wasn’t a movie. Instead, Gilbert made a choking sound and tensed up. Excitement fluttered in Ludwig’s stomach. This had been the first time Gilbert had done much more than lay around all this time. However, when the constant beeping trailed off into one, long, horrible sound and Gilbert went limp, a cold ball hit Ludwig’s stomach – dousing any sense of happiness or excitement that grew there.

Gilbert wasn’t waking up.


End file.
